* Fruits are no longer type pill. This has been tamed. The "Valour orange" is still available at the Valour pill shop and rots in 24 hours.
* A magic seashell has been added to Serin. It's magic. It's a seashell.
* Waterwalking potions are now available.
* Underwater breathing pills have been added to River Wood. Some of them taste bad.

Mob/Area Updates

* The Sewers can be accessed from South Square once more.
* A new shopkeeper has opened a store inside Shadun Dalghul.
* Smugglers have appeared around Serin. These vendors accept relics as currency and don't mind selling to criminals.
* Evermore mobs now deal a larger variety of damage types.
* Downstairs mobs in Zodiac Island now deal more damage.

Class Updates

Bard
* Flight of the Condor now provides true flight for a bard and his group.

Berserker
* Fury is now generated when berserkers deal or receive damage from any source.
* Bodyslam and headbutt no longer require fury to perform - the extra effects on these skills still require and cost fury.
* Wild smash no longer grounds fliers. It has increased fury cost and does big damage.

Dark-knight
* The "nightmare control" skill can now use cardinal directions to ride. Chaotic spec dark-knights have less control over their nightmares.
* Strike of pain is no longer blocked by weapon ward, dodge, or holy armor. Each strike allows the victim to save for half or no damage.

Druid
* Druid staff has been overhauled.
* Astral form has its mana cost reduced and no longer requires a fully charged staff.
* Druid wildshape has been completely reworked from the ground up. The druid is now able to change himself into many of the beasts found around Serin.

Healer
* Healer can no longer use weapon ward.

Illusionist
* More level 35-45 duplicates are available, especially for neutrals.
* Grandeur now allows the hitroll boost to stack.

Invoker
* Shield, mana shield, and barrier incorporates racial resists and vulns more effectively. Example: A gnome is resistant to mental damage so his mana shield has less upkeep while he is taking mental damage. A gnome is vulnerable to bash so his barrier has more upkeep against those attacks (mana shield/barrier did not block any vuln damage prior to this update).

Monk
* Astral walk now has a 24 hour cooldown after reverting.
* Monk healing will now sap moves.

Paladin
* Strike of faith is no longer blocked by weapon ward, dodge, or holy armor. * Each strike allows the victim to save for half or no damage.

Ranger
* Special ranger bow shots (wounding/aerial/flare/called/parting/leading) now require a small amount of moves.

Shaman
* Shaman can no longer use weapon ward.
* Shaman now has enhanced damage.

Warrior
* Failing overpower will now allow the intended skill to go through.
* Overpowering berserk now has more hitroll, damroll, and healing.
* Overpowering warcry now has more hitroll, afflictive save, and duration.
* Overpowering hobble now has an increased chance to be successful and is harder to recover from.
* Overpowering overhead crush now does increased damage and can break the target's protective shield.

Skill changes affecting multiple classes
* Flying will now prevent the lag from fleeing while hobbled.
* Landing overhead crush can ground a flier.
* Weapon ward no longer blocks blunt skills with lag like overhead crush, clobber, sideswipe, and wild smash.
* Protective shield now blocks blunt skills with lag like overhead crush, clobber, sideswipe, and wild smash.
* Mana shield, barrier, and shield spell no longer factor in the user's armor class before negating damage._________________No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful.

so... unless strike of faith gets blocked by protective shield and it just wasn't put into the list with the other blunt attacks... or something has to have slipped through on that. those strikes are ridiculously op. nerf ing their damage doesn't do shit when it's their effects that are deadly. it can do scratches for all I care it would still be overpowered as he'll if you can just freely strike

there are new files for strikes of faith and pain, they tell you which strikes do what and you need to fail a save to have the effect on you._________________Hit Points: Anything more than none means I'm ready for action, baby

Beia, we'll be watching healers and shamans very closely this quarter to see how the weapon ward removal is working. A few general comments about that:

1) Weapon ward very much has the feel of an arcane spell. Beginning with the first combat module, our healer and shaman classes started to slip into something that felt like mages with shield block and healing spells. This is a big step in restoring the original feel of those classes.

2) Many skills that used to be blocked by weapon ward are now blocked by protective shield, which healers and shaman still have access to. Protective shield has a longer duration than weapon ward for all combos at lvl 50. Additionally, hobble is not an issue if you're flying.

3) No-disarm weapons had lost their glory. Warrior-types need to switch weapons so they're less likely to use them and weapon ward negates any disarm risk for the classes that have it. I'm looking forward to seeing Vainglory restored to its former prominence.

4) Before weapon ward, shamans used to have enhanced damage. This has been restored.

5) Healers have simply not been using some of their best skills: healer staff and spirit shield. Being able to wield a two-handed weapon AND a shield is better than enhanced damage. The healer staff is tough to disarm and has some nice benefits, like healing the wielder. Those two skills are the most likely to be adjusted going forward.

As always, we're looking forward to your feedback on the changes we make to the game, whether it's positive or negative. We feel that we can improve the game by restoring some things that have been lost or removed over the years while still moving forward with innovative new content. Do your best to keep the feedback focused and objective, and don't jump to conclusions before trying things out. We'll be opening new forums for discussion about our next balance patch soon enough._________________No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful.

Its pretty obvious to me that healer spirit staff/spirit shield with castigate flowing off divine power has made healer able to deal a devastating amount of damage, when they aren't in healing-mode. That was the goal there. So, we couldn't really give them enhanced damage like we are doing for shaman. We are just stepping away from weapon ward for clerics and plugging any holes that come up.
It was also pretty obvious that shaman had been hoofed in the nuts, and that wasn't entirely invalid but that had definitely overcompensated.

I don't know if shaman will necessarily keep enhanced damage either ; I would think they actually perform a meditation ritual for that. It will be a ritual that will require them to remain standing in place, maybe swaying a severed head around, uttering blasphemies, and attuning themselves closer to the darkness. In that process they build up something which I would tentatively call darkness gauge, but its probably more likely to be an unholy power gauge. I don't doubt not everyone will cheer at the thought of something like that, but you guys know druids have runes and healers have divine power, and both of those have brought depth to the classes and have some differences. Its also working well on berserkers, and shadows, and monks. Very well actually. So anyway, all that energy would be consumed to undertake some form of demonic possession. In the shaman case, we'd probably be looking at something more close to healers gauge, due to the symmetry of good and evil. Healers of course, build their gauge by healing others. Shamans would definitely be just clamoring to themselves and uttering some badass crap, and enhanced damage maybe unleashable at any level, which will consume the darkness, and the amount of benefit simply depend on what stage you waited before you finally turn it on. What I like about going that way is we can also make the levels of unholy power strengthen the protection spell, so the shaman can basically be saying to his god, ok, lets lower the protection and deal damage instead, I'm ready to blow this guys boots off, and we can also tie the harm spells to this gauge instead of needing cooldowns. and failing mals (an annoying part of shaman) can build gauge too! so this would really make the class feel more rewarding in my opinion

Also, to those of you who read that head swinging stuff and think no, that sounds stupid. May I suggest to you that there is nothing much scarier I have experienced IRL than when I was walking through a castle ruins at 4am and there was a druid there swinging something in a sack, in the rain in pitch black, chanting shit. Really. That really f'ing happened to me and thinking about it, I'm surprised I didnt piss my pants. Couldve easily been the night he decided his previous severed head needed replacing_________________AR is on TwitterFacebook

I like your idea Dav, but I would think that the ritual would be dependent on deity. I realize that it’s a lot of work, but it honestly feels like religions don’t have that enough right now (still haven’t figured out what reputation does or how to get tattoos, that’s on me though) and this is another opportunity to add something that’s purely cosmetic but spices things up a bit.